Hundreds of activists gathered to speak Monday at Atlanta’s City Hall ahead of a council vote over whether to approve tens of millions in public funding for the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center that activists decry as “Cop City.”
The meeting is a culmination of nearly two years of activism against the project – a movement that has galvanized protesters from across the country, especially in the wake of the January fatal police shooting of Manuel Paez Terán, a 26-year-old environmental activist known as “Tortuguita” who had been camping in the woods near the site of the proposed project in DeKalb County.
The training center was approved by the City Council in September 2021 but requires an additional vote for more funding. City officials say the new 85-acre campus would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers that worsened after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice three years ago.
Councilmembers are considering whether to approve $31 million in public funds for the site’s construction, as well as a provision that requires the city to pay $36 million - $1.2 million a year over 30 years - for using the facility. The rest of the $90 million project would come from private donations to the Atlanta Police Foundation, though city officials had, until recently, repeatedly said that the public obligation would only be $31 million.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock tweeted that bail funds held important roles during the civil rights movement and said that the images of the heavily armed police officers raiding the home where the activists lived “reinforce the very suspicions that help to animate the current conflict-namely, concerns Georgians have about over-policing, the quelling of dissent in a democracy, and the militarization of our police.
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